


Special Delivery

by water_bby



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:00:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29301552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/water_bby/pseuds/water_bby
Summary: Local teacher Umino Iruka is being followed by ninken. Konoha shinobi Hatake Kakashi has a letter for the strongest chakra user in town.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 4
Kudos: 122
Collections: A Very Special KakaIru Exchange!





	Special Delivery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hkandi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hkandi/gifts).



> Thanks to TeaforMonsters for the beta.

Iruka noticed the dog following him as he was shopping for fresh vegetables. He hadn’t seen this dog before, and it always stayed about fifteen feet away, but it was definitely following him. Yesterday, a dog had followed him on that afternoon’s errands, staying about ten feet away. Iruka might not have trained long at one of the famed Academies of the great Hidden Villages, but he had trained enough. These dogs were summons, he was sure. Someone with ninken was interested in what he was doing. Now to figure out if the two ninken went with two different shinobi.

Iruka turned from the vendor’s stall and headed away from the center of town. Maybe he could get the ninken to bring its master to him. If so, Iruka knew where he wanted to arrange that meeting. He hoped whoever arrived was alone and not jounin-level, but he made plans regardless. He also paid close attention to when the ninken finally left.

When Guruko popped up next to Kakashi and the rest of his pack, he raised a single eyebrow. “Did you get tagged, too?”

Guruko dropped his head. He had given Urushi a hard time yesterday when he had admitted to being noticed by the target.

“Yeah. He led me on a chase out to one of the old buildings on the edge of town and then triggered a tag. I figured it was better to get out as soon as possible.”

Kakashi hummed. After a week in this town, most of the chakra users they had identified were so low-level as to be barely worth the name. Being able to tell when a batch of beer was going skank and knowing how to fix it was a valuable skill, but it wasn’t a sign of someone who could deal with a child of Konoha. The only adult they had found who had the power to do so was one of the local teachers, so Kakashi focused his research on this Iruka-sensei. His Hokage may have ordered him to find the highest-level chakra worker in this town and hand over the letter he had been entrusted with, but he also definitely understood that the old man knew the letter’s intended recipient, and there was no way the teacher was old enough for that to be true.

He knew the letter was about fostering Minato’s son, and maybe Itachi’s brother, and he owed it to his mentor and his friend to make sure it would be a good match, not just a convenient one. Even though he hadn’t been able to get the old man to tell him why he thought this would work, he figured that the situation in Konoha justified the silence.

“Well,” he finally said, “I suppose we should have a closer look at this building.”

“What if it’s a trap, boss?” Pakkun asked.

Kakashi grinned, “Then we’ll have a bit of fun. Come on.”

Kakashi wasn’t expecting the hole in his vision that grew to overwhelm everything. This kid may not have a lot of power, but he had more training than Kakashi usually found, even among active unaligned shinobi. He also had a lot of ingenuity. Now that Kakashi had opened his Sharingan, he realized that the hole was simply a very well done tag, just like the traps that had slowed them down in the building. He’d suspected the chakra user was in the woods, but he hadn’t expected more tags. Following the young man was proving way more fun than waiting for his ninken to report back to him.

Iruka waited while the stranger and his too-many ninken moved further into the woods. He recognized the mark of Konoha on the shinobi’s head even if he wasn’t sure how to read the rest of the uniform. He thought it was a jounin uniform, but he hadn’t seen the most recent design. It didn’t matter. If this man was a danger to Iruka’s family or students or, indeed, to the town itself, Iruka was duty-bound to do his best to stop him. If he wasn’t a danger, why was he so intent on stalking Iruka? One day may have been curiosity, but two? Well, Iruka’s mother was a big believer in watching for patterns as a defense mechanism.

When the stranger walked beneath him, Iruka threw a series of explosive tags in a circle, hoping to distract or disable the ninken while he dropped out of the tree onto the man. The first part of Iruka’s plan partially succeeded, as three of the ninken yelped and disappeared. Iruka didn’t know if they could come back without being specifically summoned again, but he hoped not. The second part of his plan didn’t go so well. As he reached the spot where the man stood, the man was gone, reappearing just behind Iruka as he righted himself. Iruka flung out an arm to block any strike the man might make. He found himself pushed back towards the tree. Iruka twisted away, planning to use the tree as a barrier, but he tripped forward when a set of teeth grabbed his pants and pulled his foot out from under him. He hadn’t even seen this ninken before, having focused on the ones he recognized and the giant one that now placed a massive paw in the middle of Iruka’s back. Iruka tried to perform a substitution jutsu, but the small ninken transferred his hold from Iruka’s pants to his shirt, stopping the signs before sitting on Iruka’s hands.

Iruka went limp. Maybe he would have another chance when the large one moved. He just hoped that the Konoha shinobi was here for something that wouldn’t leave Iruka’s parents bereft.

“Maa, is that any way to treat a perfectly innocent dog?” The stranger squatted a few feet away, his single visible eye laughing at Iruka.

“I wasn’t aware that perfectly innocent dogs stalked random strangers in the marketplace,” Iruka replied. “Or that they were attached to shinobi. Ninken, on the other hand, yes.”

The stranger watched him for another moment. “They’re pretty annoyed with you for the explosive tags. Bisuke is going to demand lots of pets for that trick.”

At this, another smallish dog popped into existence near the stranger, pushing its head underneath the man’s off-hand. Iruka watched the stranger and his ninken watch him in return, a wary edge to all of them that warned him against trying anything. At least for now.

“Why were they stalking me?”

“Ah, that would be because I have a message to deliver, and we were trying to determine the recipient.”

“You don’t know who the letter is for?” Iruka knew his voice sounded doubtful. From what his parents said, and from what he remembered, shinobi could find themselves in odd situations, but having to deliver a letter without knowing who it was for seemed particularly strange.

“I was told to give it to the strongest chakra user I found in this town. That’s you.” The stranger shrugged as if it wasn’t a particularly odd request, even if it was an annoying one.

Iruka figured the letter must be for one of his parents. But who in Konoha would be sending a letter via private messenger without letting the messenger know?

“Who’s it from?” Iruka asked.

“The Hokage,” the stranger answered.

Iruka’s forehead hit the ground. “Let me up, and we’ll find a place to talk. With tea. Maybe sake.”

The large paw lifted off him, and he felt the ninken settle just far enough away for Iruka to move. The small one freed his hands and stalked back to the stranger.

Iruka slowly stood and started making his way to his parents’ home. He thought that if they had been following him, they apparently hadn’t yet found the house. While part of him worried that this wasn’t the right decision, he wanted to have this conversation away from the rest of the town. Therefore, he couldn’t take them to his small apartment over the school.

Kakashi followed the young man, impressed that someone who might be chuunin-level back home had managed as well as he had against Kakashi and his ninken. Bisuke, unsurprisingly, stuck close to the young man, following up on Kakashi’s comment about demanding pets. The young man didn’t seem the type to be distracted by a cute dog, especially one that he’d already recognized as a summons, but it wouldn’t hurt.

Kakashi was a bit surprised when they went further towards the end of town rather than back toward the school, but he wasn’t going to bring it up if the young man didn’t. After all, he didn’t want to come off as a stalker, even if he had had his pack trailing the young man.

The small house they finally stopped at wasn’t large, but it looked well-cared for and had a lovely garden he could barely see around the back. Kakashi wasn’t surprised to find the house was warded, and he admired the young man’s efficient disarming of the locking ward. However, as he stepped through the door, he realized that there were more wards in place, wards that didn’t taste of the young man’s chakra, unlike the locking ward. These were the wards of older, more experienced chakra users. Jounin-level, he’d guess, overlaid so that they reinforced each other and were more potent than either wielder could have put in place individually.

Kakashi looked up at the young man, who had turned to watch him. So, he knew about the wards. Kakashi pulled up his hitai-ate and looked at the wards with his Sharingan. He felt more than saw the young man tense when he did so, but he trusted Pakkun and the others to keep an eye on him. He watched the wards slip about each other, and him, as if they were examining him in turn. Then he saw it, the collection of sigils that meant he probably was being observed or recorded. He had never seen them incorporated into wards like this, but he had seen them in the interrogation rooms at T&I. These wards were a masterwork, and he wanted to meet the people who had put them together. Maybe, if he were lucky, they would agree to teach him how they did it. Still, it was only polite to greet the homeowners, even if they weren’t physically present.

“I am Hatake Kakashi, son of Hatake Sakumo. I mean no harm to you or anyone else. I carry a message from the Hokage that I believe is for you.”

It seemed the wardmarkers were aware: he felt himself gently nudged further inside as the wards expanded to confirm his chakra connection to each of his ninken. Then they went dormant, waiting until another stranger entered their reach.

“Maa,” Kakashi said to the young man, “that is impressive work. Do you think I might ask for a lesson or two?”

The young man snorted. “You can ask; whether they’ll agree is another matter. Come on, let me make tea, and then we can talk.” He turned around and walked away from Kakashi, but only after bending down to scratch Bisuke behind the ears.

Kakashi followed, wondering why he felt more at home than he had since he had left the Village.

Once they had settled with their tea, the young man asked the question Kakashi had been wondering about himself. Why had the Hokage sent him to deliver a message without giving him a name?

Kakashi shrugged. “It happens,” he said. The young man’s grimace amused him.

“Let me try again,” the young man said. “If you were sent here,” Kakashi nodded, “and told to give the letter to the strongest chakra user you found,” Kakashi nodded again, “then you have a letter for my parents. Why would the Hokage send a message to a couple of ‘retired’ jounin but not tell the messenger?”

Kakashi blinked. “I don’t know for sure what the message is, but I understand he was hoping they would agree to take in a foster child or two.” Kakashi hoped he wasn’t overstepping, but if this young man’s parents had left the Village after the Kyuubi attack and then had trained their son, his reluctant host would be a part of the boys’ lives, and he might even have a say in his parents’ decision.

“Why would Sarutobi-sama need to send children out to be fostered? Wouldn’t they be better served within the Village itself? I mean, my parents are pretty good parents and teachers, but they mostly keep this area free of missing-nin and overactive forest beasts. They left for a reason, so why would he think they’d get involved?”

Kakashi had no answer, so he shrugged again.

“And why do you have a Sharingan if you’re not Uchiha?”

“Long story,” Pakkun growled. “The Boss doesn’t tell it.”

The young man looked at the small ninken and nodded. Kakashi liked him a lot. 

“So, you know my name, may I have yours?” 

The young man laughed in embarrassment. “Umino Iruka.”

Kakashi felt shocked. “Your parents are Umino Ikkaku and Umino Kohari? We thought they’d died in the Kyuubi attack.” That would explain the wards. Umino Kohari had been in charge of the wards around T&I for years. The current ANBU ward masters still used her designs.

The young man, Iruka, blinked in surprise. “Well, Sarutobi-sama knows they’re alive and well. I get birthday presents from him every year.”

By the time Iruka’s parents arrived back home three days later, Iruka and Kakashi had developed their own little pattern. They met at the house for dinner each night because they didn’t want anyone in the town to link them if someone asked questions.

The first night, Iruka blushed but admitted that he’d looked up Kakashi in the bingo books his parents kept. Iruka still felt a bit odd about researching a new possible friend, but Kakashi laughed at him, arguing that Kakashi had been investigating him even before they had met. And after, Iruka argued back, considering that the only one of the ninken he hadn’t recognized hanging out near the school was the giant one no one would ever take for anything but a ninken.

The second afternoon, Bisuke had wandered up to Iruka’s students during an outdoor play period, letting all the kids pet him. That led to yet another conversation over dinner because Iruka’s best student had looked at him very seriously after school and announced that she didn’t think they’d been petting a “normal dog.” 

Iruka’s proposed foster brothers were both eight years old. If they stayed in Konoha, they would be starting the Academy when the next school year began.

“That makes them Sakura’s age,” Iruka mused. “Would it be okay to train them together, or should we try to keep them apart?”

Kakashi shrugged. That was his usual response to Iruka’s comments about teaching plans, but Iruka understood it was a sign of Kakashi not having much to add rather than a lack of interest. “Your parents will have the final say.”

“Of course,” Iruka laughed, “but if the boys are in school, I’m going to be doing a lot of the teaching, and Sakura will start some basic chakra training next school year. She’ll figure it out eventually.”

Kakashi shrugged again. “I’m not the one you have to convince, Iruka-sensei.”

Iruka glared at him before bursting into laughter.

The third night, his parents arrived and insisted on a regular dinner before reading the letter. Iruka thought Kakashi looked rather starstruck before they all set about discussing wards. When Kakashi finally asked about learning more, Iruka’s mother had offered to set up a curriculum. She insisted that Kakashi had to return for each new lesson in person. 

“Maybe when you bring the boys, hmm?” she laughed as Kakashi tucked their response into his jacket.

Kakashi remembered that laugh when the Hokage announced, “Kakashi, you will be accompanying the boys to their new home. Shall we say in three days?”

Kakashi agreed, though he was a bit surprised that he was being sent back so soon, whatever Umino Kohari had said.

The Hokage smiled as he held the reply out to Kakashi:

Dear Hiruzen-sama,

Of course, we’ll take the boys. We do require that you either send this nice young man as their bodyguard or at least send him back often. Kohari has promised ward lessons and would like to begin as soon as possible. Besides, he and our Iruka have hit it off quite well, and we want to give them every chance. We’re sure you will agree.


End file.
